Spiritualized
Sweet Heart Sweet Light (Fat Possum)
Reviewed by Chase Hoffberger, Fri., May 11, 2012
Spiritualized
Sweet Heart Sweet Light (Fat Possum)Things haven't gotten better for Spiritualized's Jason Pierce. Sweet Heart Sweet Light proves they've only gotten worse. Diagnosed with a liver disease that debilitated him throughout the recording of Spiritualized's seventh LP, the embattled frontman paints a sprawling, majestic, troubled blur of a songwriter on the edge. "Sometimes I wish that I was dead," he sings on "Little Girl," "'cause only living can feel the pain." With a pop-ready string section and Southern gospel choir, it's the most optimistic melody on SHSL, one last sliver of hope before the drug-induced abyss of "Get What You Deserve" swallows Pierce's ever-tortured psyche. He tremors like Jeff Tweedy wafting through "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" on "Headin' for the Top Now" and "I Am What I Am," but rebirth comes hard. He's calling for Jesus by "Life Is a Problem," and asking God for a purpose on "So Long You Pretty Thing." Broken never sounded so divine. (Spiritualized spellbinds Emo's East, Wednesday, May 16.)
